1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a ceramic burner for a hot-blast stove, e.g. for a blast furnace, comprising a burner head at which the combustion components meet and an air duct and a gas duct underneath the burner head.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A ceramic burner of this type is disclosed in NL-A- No. 8201238. In this example, the gas duct is formed within the air duct by a monolithic structure or a brickwork structure whose courses contain means hindering their relative movement.
A problem with these high temperature burners is that, because of thermal expansions, during operation and during construction their dimensions are considerably different. A further problem is that the burner has local expansion differences due to differences in temperature in the burner structure. Means of interlocking are used against movement of the courses of the structure and have the function of preventing gas leaks caused by periodically occurring expansion differences. However, the interlocking in combination with the expansion differences give rise to stresses in the burner which reduce its service life.
DE-A- No. 3240852 discloses a burner in which a sliding joint is provided in the brickwork of the burner head itself.